


Press OK to be Revived

by Mappelond



Category: MapleStory
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-25 14:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18576436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mappelond/pseuds/Mappelond
Summary: You'll be sent to a safe town nearby.





	Press OK to be Revived

A cool breeze chilled the air around the place known as Ereve. A full moon light up the sky as well as the millions of stars that joined the astronomical body. Should one look hard enough, they could find the millions of constellations thanks to little air pollution in the area save for a few candles.

Standing on a balcony overseeing the treetops reaching up to meet the glittering night sky was Maple World’s own Empress Aria. She held a worried look on her face as her mind was bursting to the brim with thoughts of tomorrow’s big event. Her advisors all believed the peace treaty with the Black Mage would result favorably, but Aria herself could not follow suit in their thinking process.

The Black Mage was a fearsome wizard indeed… who knew that one who followed the path of light would soon find himself trapped within the dark? Rather… he allowed the darkness to consume him and became evil itself. It surely wasn’t going to be easy to negotiate peace with someone of the Black Mage’s status… but, Aria must try. For her people’s sake.

Even if… she was afraid of what could happen.

_ White Mage… why have you become the way you have? What happened to that caring nature of yours?  _ She wondered to herself.  _ Why have you turned from being a shining beacon of hope into one that steals such a thing and places fear and despair into everyone’s hearts? Is your own sanity worth giving up to unlock the secrets dark magic contain…?  _ Aria heaved a heavy sigh and clasped her shaking hands together. The empress constantly had to conceal her fear in front of the public. Only the moon knew her secrets of how she disliked the burden of being ruler. Aria had enough reason to worry… who knew what could happen to her people?

A sudden realization that someone else was watching her made her snap her head up. “Who’s there?” Her head turned behind her to see a familiar silhouette produced by the moonlight.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been out here waiting for me all night.” The figure spoke. His words were gentle.

Aria’s own visage softened upon hearing his voice. “Shall I summon the guard?” She asked, albeit playfully as seen by her weak smile.

The man jumped down, unfolding his arms. None other than Phantom himself had made his appearance to the worrying empress. The white and golden outfit as well as the feathers adorned on his hat gave it away he was ultimately the phantom thief everyone in Maple World knew about. A sly smile rested upon Phantom’s face. 

Aria already knew what he had come for, of course. “I’ll not hand over our treasure. No matter how charming you try to be.” Her eyes shut tight upon saying those words, but one eye opened to look at where Phantom was as he answered.

“Charming? You’re finally coming to your senses.” He smiled as he said those words. His casanova persona was popular with many, as well as the Empress in a sense.

But, she couldn’t play hard to get tonight. Not with her troubles weighing her down. The air changed to a more serious one as she spoke to Phantom. “I have invited an envoy from the Black Mage to arrive.” Her gaze went to the balcony. The famous thief stepped closer as she continued to speak. “I hope to negotiate terms of peace…”

Phantom could see her face on the verge of holding an anguished expression. He summoned up one of his magical cards and held it out to Aria. “All this worrying… it’s gonna give you crow’s feet.” As he said those words, the card turned into a magnificent rose. Aria gasped at the sight and turned her face towards him. The moon’s pale light shined down upon his face as he gave her a reassuring smile. “I prefer a woman with a smile on her face.”

The tears that were bubbling up were blinked away as Aria expressed her gratitude in the form of a grin. Gentle hands took hold of the red flower and held it close. “...Phantom. What are your thoughts about being a hero?” Her gaze never left the crimson petals. “To fight against evil in this world… it would appear everyone would want your help.”

“A hero?” Phantom asked, raising his hand to his chest. “I don’t have any interest in such things.” He looked up towards the sky, eyes almost shimmering in the moonlight. “I like how I’m living now… I’m not tied to anything and I can act freely. No one has me under lock and key.”

Aria joined Phantom with her head towards the moon.

“Freedom.” Aria couldn’t help but feel envious of Phantom. She too wished to be free, but the truth of it was that the shackle of royalty would be chained at her feet and weigh her down for all of eternity. 

The Empress couldn’t bring herself, however, to trouble Phantom with this belief of hers.

  
  


It was a few days after the negotiation. The Empress herself couldn’t quite rest easy after the ordeal she had to go through.  _ The terms they desired were a little out there. I fear many of my people will not like the conditions I had to accept peace under. _ Aria sighed as she got out her book. She was in a rather sour mood due to how she wasn’t able to get enough sleep as well as the whole peace treaty thing being more so in the Black Mage’s favor instead of her own. That and… she hadn’t seen Phantom lately.

Then she remembered why.

It was the anniversary of the day Raven himself had died in the explosion.

_ He must be in mourning… _ Aria concluded as she turned the page to where she had left off before.  _ Then again, Phantom speaks of Raven as competition rather than a teacher. Strange.  _ A glistening bookmark was removed and Aria looked down towards the pages.  _ Perhaps I should get him a gift. What would he like, though? _ Immediately, her hands went down to the gem she wore around her neck.  _...The guards wouldn’t be very pleased if I just handed over our treasure, now would they?  _

Before any reading or more thinking could’ve been done about the matter, a man with a terrified expression barged into the room. He tried to speak up, but no words could come out due to his loss of breath. When he finally could speak, his words were shaky. “Pl-please… excuse me…!”

“It’s morning… what is the meaning of this?” She asked, rather shaken up herself do to the random occurrence. “Please, calm down.”

“W-well…” The man wheezed. “I-it’s… it’s the Black Mage! His commander is planning on invading Ereve!”

“What about the deal we had with him?” Aria stood up slowly, returning the bookmark to the page it was found on. “Was all of that for naught?”

“It would appear so…” 

Aria’s hands started shaking again as she closed the book. “...Please, make preparations to defend Ereve. Do whatever you can to ensure that the commander as well as whatever they may bring with them do not enter my domain. Do you understand.”

“I do… b-but, what about you?!”

“I will be with Shinsoo for the time being. Should they reach me somehow, they’ll have to answer to them.”

“I understand… please, stay safe.” 

The Empress saw the scared man run off before she went off on her own. The garden was not too far off. If the commander wasn’t there yet… Aria had time to reach Shinsoo.

She hoped.

Lucky for Aria, being trapped inside of her own palace gained her a sense of where to go and what shortcuts to take to get out back quickly. Guards soon rushed past her, preparing themselves to defend against the incoming danger that would be the uninvited guest. Others such as the cooks and the maids were up in arms in panic over what to do and where to go.

_ Why, though?  _ The empress asked herself.  _ Why an invasion? Wasn’t the details of the peace treaty enough?  _ She shook away those thoughts.  _ No, they were more than enough. I wanted to refuse them badly, but for the sake of Ereve… _

Her eyes widened as her surroundings soon changed from indoors to outside. She turned her head toward the skies to see if any sort of aerial attack threatened to rain down upon the grounds. 

Nothing. For now.

She continued on her way to the mythical protector of the country, making her way through knights that were stationed to protect Shinsoo as well as Aria herself. The gazebo in sight with a pair of feathered wings resting alongside. 

But, it would appear some unwelcome company had arrived.

The blonde empress stopped in her tracks when she saw a spear of black magical energy nail one of her knights in the chest. “What…?!”

“Keep running, Empress!” The guards shouted upon seeing her stop. “Hey, don’t let him get any closer!”

Aria looked at the blood coming out of the wound and clasped her hands over to her mouth. Hesitation before saying the words “I’m sorry…” quietly before she ran off towards where Shinsoo was.

Closer and closer she ran, calling out Shinsoo’s name as loud as she could. Tears and witnessing the attack on one of the guards, however, left her a mess and Aria’s voice was hoarse and barely let her shout as loud as she wanted to.

She was, however, able to scream out when her chest was impaled on the same sort of magic that had incapacitated the man she saw before.

“Pity. I missed your heart.”

Her eyes snapped open as she looked up her attacker.

“L-Lotus…?”

The uniformed man walked closer, causing Aria to panic and try to escape, but a tree was in her way. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Why are you… are you… the commander?”

“Who else?” The black outfit he wore should’ve been a dead give-away… as if the attacks he pulled before wouldn’t let Aria know either. “Even though I missed where I aimed… it would appear you won’t last long due to blood loss.”

Aria looked down at her chest. The white fabric on her dress had turned an ugly shade of red. Even in the pale sunlight, she could see the intensity of the color, as well as her pain, growing. “Lotus, why are you…”

A sudden wind gave way that Shinsoo had arrived. The scream of Aria hadn’t gone unheard by her protector. “Do not harm her…!”

“It’s too late for that.” Lotus flicked his hand and the same fate that fell upon his previous victims hit Shinsoo. Almost missing, but where his blows did strike caused the beast to fall.

Even in pain and bleeding, Shinsoo curled themselves up around Aria protectively. There wasn’t anything they could do to prevent Aria’s fate at this point, but what they could do was perhaps lower the damage done by Lotus. “You…”

The commander looked from Shinsoo down to where the Empress was. “You both are weak… but, humans are the weakest of all.”

“...What about… the peace?” Aria asked.

“That was a trap.” Another voice was heard. Lotus turned to see his sister approaching them. Her twintails were unmistakable as well as the similar uniform she donned. “It was to lure you in, but… Lotus, I thought we weren’t gonna actually mess with the empress…”

Her brother didn’t seem pleased upon hearing that, as he turned and faced his twin. “Could it be you feel sorry for this toy…?”

“Not that.” Orchid responded. “It’s just… now we can’t play with it anymore.”

“I was getting too tired of it. Humans like her are too fragile. Something like this was bound to happen one day.”

“Lotus… Orchid.” Aria weakly spoke. Her vision was slowly becoming hazy… “Why are you two… why are you two helping the Black Mage? You… you two… you both were such kind beings before. What do you have to gain by assisting him…”

The two stopped dead, Hearing those words from Aria, of all people… 

Aria slowly lifted her head up to continue speaking to the two. “It… it isn’t too late…! Please, I beg of you two… use your powers for good instead of evil.” Her eyes looked down upon the twins. “You must… take care of this world.”

“I am surprised to see you still manage to speak despite sitting upon death’s doorstep.” Lotus smiled, trying to hide his surprise. “It is true… the peace treaty was a farce. Even the conditions you accepted were no good, but it was obvious you wouldn’t accept them unless we went higher.” He explained. “In the end, we knew something had to be done about you. Your entire existence is nothing more than an obstacle for the Black Mage.”

Aria didn’t reply back. She sat where she was as her eyes looked up at the sky.

“Hey, hey!” Orchid went up to the fading empress. “Are you still awake?”

Silence. Aria’s beautiful eyes appeared like a stormy ocean rather than a bright blue sky.

“...She must be dead.” Orchid couldn’t help but frown. “I wanted to play with her one last time.”

  
  
  


“...Ugh…”

Aria slowly sat up. All around her was nothing but darkness.What appeared to be a screen of blue was the only source of illumination in the strange area she awoke in. There was no sky, grass, or even trees.

Lotus and Orchid also weren’t there, nor were there any fallen guards… or-

“Shinsoo?” Aria looked around. “Where am I…?” She looked around before turning her head towards the shining blue screen that stood in front of her. White words were displayed.

“ _ Press OK to be revived. You will be sent to a safe town nearby.” _

Aria read those words out loud, despite being the only one to hear them. Everything was in an endless echo, even though it would appear no walls nor a ceiling existed. “What is this?” She looked down and saw a bright green OK button. “I died, didn’t I? What am I looking at here?” The empress quickly looked down at her chest.

No blood. Not even any dried droplets were on her dress.

“What is going on?” 

No one could answer. No one could hear.

Only Aria could do any of those things, for she was the only audience for herself. She read the words again and looked at the button once more. “...It doesn’t look like I have a choice, do I?”

Her finger pressed the button and her vision faded away to black.

Falling back into the darkness that had claimed her…

  
  


A cool breeze chilled the air around the place known as Ereve. A full moon light up the sky as well as the millions of stars that joined the astronomical body. Should one look hard enough, they could find the millions of constellations thanks to little air pollution in the area save for a few candles.

“This is…” Aria blinked at the sudden realization of where she was at. There were no fallen guards in the gardens below, no fallen trees, no screaming…

Nothing, but the quiet night.

Everything was just the same as it was a few days ago. The same night sky and the same wind that made the area cold as it rushed on by quietly.

“This isn’t possible, is it?” Aria asked as she paced around the balcony. She was about to rush inside, when a familiar noise made her turn her head. “Who’s there?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve been out here waiting for me all night.” The figure standing atop the railing spoke and then jumped down.

“Phantom…” 

The master thief held a charming look, until he was the first to realize Aria herself had started crying. “Is something wrong?”

“N-nothing…” Aria spoke, but her composure couldn’t be kept up. The empress then broke down. 

Phantom took her hands into his and gave her a concerned look. “Please, tell me the truth. Your tears speak a thousand words even though you’ve only said one.”

“...Something… everything is wrong…”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really just polishing off this old account of mine to post this, don't mind me.  
> This is based off of the Wing Master chapters, Black Heaven act 1, and a small comic released in JMS for Phantom's release. They all clashed together story-wise so I hope I was able to sew them together neatly >_<  
> It's been a while since I've penned Aria's character, so I hope I also did her some justice!


End file.
